People Who Care subtitle: Stubbornness Required
by ravens rising
Summary: Ichigo will not leave anyone behind- not even Byakuya. Especially not Byakuya. Ichigo/Byakuya.


Title: People Who Care (subtitle: Stubbornness Required)  
Rating: PG-13  
Word Count: 2,387  
Warnings: injuries, boy kissing  
Characters: Ichigo, Byakuya, Ukitake, mention of Unohana, Rukia, and Renji  
Pairings: Ichigo/Byakuya, Ukitake & Byakuya friendship  
Notes: Another birthday fic for that same friend.

* * *

Ichigo stopped short. He blinked.

_Was that?..._

Ichigo broke into a run.

_Finally._

He skidded to a stop in front of the still form. The man was somewhat curled in on himself, his knees slightly bent, and his arms resting near his face. His whole body was covered in nasty cuts and gashes, some light, many severe. His haori was almost completely in shreds, leaving him clothed mostly in black. This, combined with the black hair that haloed his head, made his unnatural pallor and the splashes of vivid crimson blood stand out all the more.

Ichigo grimaced, and slowly knelt down beside him. "You idiot, Bykuya. What am I going to tell Rukia if you managed to get yourself killed, huh?" He murmured, pretending, not very well, that he's not worried himself. "She's going to kill me." He squinted at Byakuya's chest. _There._ Byakuya still breathed- shallowly, very shallowly- but he breathed none the less. "Well, that's a start!"

He hesitated, uncertainly, and then his raises his voice. "C'mon, Byakuya! You stupid noble idiot. Time to wake up! Wakey wakey!" He prodded part of his arm that looks less injured than the rest of him. He continued to call Byakuya's for several minutes. He'd feel better about dragging Byakuya somewhere if he can get Byakuya to wake up first. His father was a doctor, so Ichigo knew that moving someone whose injuries were unknown is not a good idea. Unfortunately, it was looking like he might not have a choice.

Finally, though, Byakuya stirred. His eyelids fluttered, and Ichigo noticed distantly that that was another area that Byakuya's worrisome paleness was pronounced. Byakuya's eyes opened, and he stared blearily up at Ichigo as if through a fog.

"Byakuya!" Ichigo said in relief.

Byakuya blinked slowly several more times, as if trying to clear something out of his eyes. "Ichi… go." He mumbled, his voice barely audible.

Then he began to struggle to sit up. Ichigo sat back, not really approving, but he couldn't really _disapprove_, as he knew that there were no healers nearby. They had to do this all by themselves. So he just grunted and settled for placing a steadying hand on Byakuya's shoulder once the noble was in a sitting position. Ichigo had a feeling that the idiot would have protested even that, he had gone even whiter than before, if that was possible, and his eyes had closed in pain. Ichigo wondered how long Byakuya would be able to hold onto consciousness. Slowly, slowly Byakuya's breathing slowed down, and he opened his eyes again. Ichigo could see that they still weren't very focused, though.

The two sat there awkwardly for a moment. Ichigo didn't quite know what to do. Even at the end of their fight, Byakuya had still been composed, arrogant, _strong_. This was a Byakuya he'd never seen before, and as much as the noble's attitude pissed him off most of the time, he found that he didn't like seeing him like this. Almost… broken.

"Your scarf thingy is gone." He found himself saying.

A pale hand drifted up toward his neck, fingers pressing against the skin there, almost wonderingly.

"It was… worth… several mansion." Byakuya murmured, his voice raspy.

Ichigo nodded. "Renji told me."

Byakuya's mouth twisted. "We've lost many… actual mansions… recently, anyway."

Ichigo's eyes darkened. "And many things more valuable than that."

Ichigo watched as Byakuya slowly turned his head to meet Ichigo's eyes. "…yes." He agreed, some feeling filtering though the haze in his eyes. Grief, perhaps.

There was a long pause, both of them thinking about all the damages the war had cost them, had cost everyone.

"Can you walk?" Ichigo asked gruffly; he doesn't like to think about those kinds of things.

"Yes." Byakuya answered, his voice firm, even though he still looked like he was about to fall over any minute. Ichigo was reminded that Byakuya's stubbornness did not just apply to following the rules. Well, he'd take any help Byakuya could give to getting them back to Seireitei.

"Let's go, then." He grunted, and slid an arm around Byakuya's back. Ichigo could feel Byakuya lean slightly into his arm as he struggled to stand up. Eventually, they managed to get him up, and Ichigo never commented on how heavily Byakuya was leaning against him.

They limped together off across the hot desert.

-

A polite knock broke through the silence. Byakuya didn't bother to look up from his paperwork. He knew that reiatsu.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Ukitake Jyuushirou stepped in, his usual smile on his face.

"Ukitake-taichou." Byakuya said, signing his name at the bottom of a sheet of paper.

"Byakuya." The other taichou replied with a nod, stepping further into the room. "I happened to be in the area, and I just thought I'd stop by. See how you were doing."

Byakuya raised a skeptical eyebrow at the next form. He would've bet his new scarf that Ukitake hadn't just 'happened to be in the area'. Since he'd been a child, Ukitake had always had a tendency to randomly come and bother him. Sometimes he felt a kinship with Hitsugaya-taichou. Byakuya put it up to Ukitake's longtime friendship with Ginrei, but that didn't stop it from being irritating sometimes. Byakuya was already torn about whether this was one of those times or not.

On one hand, Ukitake was interrupting paperwork, paperwork that he was very behind on because of his fight and then his injuries- Unohana-taichou had only released him from fourth that very morning.

On the other hand, it had been a while since he'd seen Ukitake-taichou, let alone had a chance to talk to him. Everyone had been incredible busy during the last couple months, taichou twice as much. Plus, though he'd never let on that he'd noticed, he couldn't help but see how unwell Ukitake himself looked. Ukitake was one of the few people he might dare call friend.

He put down his pen and looked up to meet Ukitake's eyes. Ukitake smiled tiredly at him. "It's been awhile, Byakuya."

"That it has, Ukitake-taichou." Byakuya agreed. "How have you been?"

Ukitake shrugged slightly and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Byakuya's desk. "As well as any of us have been." He answered.

Byakuya just nodded, knowing how much he hated people prying into his health. "And your division?"

"The same. We've had casualties, of course." Byakuya saw his hand twitch slightly. "But we're muddling through."

"That's all we can do right now, I think." Byakuya said slowly, and Ukitake made a sound of agreement.

"But we'll win eventually." Ukitake said.

Byakuya looked down for a moment, a dozen bloody memories flashing though his mind. "… do you really think so?" He asked, looking back up.

Ukitake's eyes were serious, no doubt knowing all too well the kinds of memories that were haunting him. Byakuya knew that Ukitake was ten times older than he was, and he didn't want to think about how many wars Ukitake had seen. The longer this war dragged on, the more Byakuya's respect for all the older taichou grew.

"Yes." Ukitake gave him a strange smile, almost a grimace. "Because we must."

Byakuya stared at him for a second, and then slowly nodded. Silence hung in the room for a long moment. "There's certainly enough stubbornness around to make that possible." Byakuya finally commented.

Ukitake grinned, and Byakuya wasn't sure whether the humor is in his eyes because of his words, or because _Byakuya_ had said it. "I have sometimes wondered whether stubbornness is a secret requirement for becoming a Shinigami." He said, amusement clear in his voice.

"It would not surprise me." Byakuya replied dryly.

They settled into silence again, though it was a bit more comfortable.

That time, it was Ukitake who broke the quiet. "Speaking of stubbornness…" He paused, hesitating.

Byakuya waited.

"Did anyone… tell you what Ichigo did?"

Byakuya raised an eyebrow. "Which time?"

A small smiled threatened to tug at Ukitake's lips, but he plowed on, looking determined. "To bring you back."

Byakuya could vaguely remember being woken up, and speaking briefly to Ichigo, but none of the words said, and everything after that was a dark blue. All Unohana-taichou had told him was that Ichigo had brought him back to fourth division.

"No?" He said hesitantly, almost a question. He wasn't sure what Ukitake was talking about.

Ukitake bit his lip. "He… was ordered not to go after you." Byakuya went very still. "It was believed that you were dead. He refused to believe that, and went after you anyway. He was gone for about five days… and when he returned, it was obvious that he'd had to carry you for most of that time. You were in pretty bad shape. And… there were wounds I know he didn't have when he left."

Byakuya stared at him. No. He had had no clue.

"Luckily, we need all the people we can get at this point," Ukitake continued, looking at him steadily, "And he did manage to bring you back, so all he got was a tongue-lashing." He smiled faintly. "I just… I thought you should know. That he cares about you. There are people out there who care about you."

Byakuya sat there in silence for a moment. Then, "Thank you for telling me, Ukitake-taichou."

Ukitake smiled at him. "Jyuushirou, please."

Byakuya gave him a dry look, and Ukitake shrugged. "I'm not going to give up, you know."

"Stubborn." Byakuya said, referencing earlier in their conversation, and Ukitake laughed.

"Quite." He agreed, and stood up. "Well, I suppose I should be off. I have my own paperwork to do." He eyed the stack on Byakuya's desk. "It was good to see you, Byakuya."

Byakuya nodded in acknowledgement, and Ukitake headed toward the door.

_There are people who care about you._

"It was… good to see you too, Jyuushirou."

Ukitake stopped and turned, his eyes wide in shock. Byakuya let himself smile, very very slightly. Ukitake's smile widened into a beam, and he raised a hand in cheerful farewell, before slipping out the door.

-

If Ichigo Kurosaki wasn't still a complete failure at concealing his reiatsu, Byakuya would have had little warning of his arrival.

Ichigo Kurosaki didn't knock, you see.

Nor did he like to use the door.

"Yo, Byakuya!" Ichigo called cheerfully from the window.

Byakuya didn't look up. _Am I destined to get any paperwork done today?_ He asked the paper in front of him mournfully. He didn't acknowledge any other reason that he might have for being nervou-_upset_ at Ichigo's arrival.

"Is there something you need, Kurosaki-fukutaichou?" He asked blandly, flipping over a page. He could almost feel Ichigo's scowl.

"You called me Ichigo before." He heard a soft thump as Ichigo casually jumped from the window sill onto the office floor.

"I did?" His pen paused.

"Yep. When you were injured."

"… I don't remember." He resumed writing, giving his subconscious a good scolding.

"Well, you did."

"I do not plan on doing it again."

"You'll give in eventually."

At that, he looked up. "You've been spending too much time with Ukitake-taichou." He muttered.

Ichigo blinked at him. "What?"

Byakuya shook his head. "Nothing."

Ichigo stared at him, and then shrugged and wandered over to his desk. "Is all you ever do paperwork?" _Sometimes it feels like it._

"No wonder Ukitake-taichou had to go do paperwork. You're as bad as my fukutaichou."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I do paperwork! Sometimes…" He said, sitting on the desk.

Byakuya raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Ichigo snickered, peering down at the pile of paperwork.

"You shouldn't have done that." The words were out before he realized it.

Ichigo looked up, looking confused. "Done what?"

"Disobeyed orders. Gone after me."

Ichigo scowled at him. "Don't be an idiot. I couldn't just leave you there."

Byakuya shook his head, his fingers tightening around his pen. "Yes, you could have. That would have been the wise thing to do." _And… there were wounds I know he didn't have when he left._ "You shouldn't have risked yourself for the chance that I was still alive. It's not worth it."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "I told yah, don't be an idiot! You know me better than that. Of course it was worth it." He crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned forward slightly, bringing them closer together. "Besides, I knew you weren't dead."

Byakuya blinked, suppressing the urge to scoot back. "How?"

Ichigo uncrossed his arms and lightly tapped Byakuya in the chest with his fist. "I… just did." He said, unusually serious.

The noble stared at him, his heartbeat suddenly loud in his ears. Why did Ichigo always cause him to feel so off balance.

Ichigo shifted slightly, embarrassed under the weight of Byakuya's stare, and he pulled back his hand. "Besides, you're too stubborn to die."

Byakuya's eyes narrowed, but he was glad that they seemed to be back on familiar ground. "_You'_re the idiot, obviously. A suicidal idiot."

Ichigo almost _growled_ at him. "Shut up!" He snarled, grabbing the front of Byakuya's haori.

Byakuys stiffened; he hadn't seen that coming _at all_. Why was Ichigo so upset? "Get your…"

"You are _so fucking weird_! You're supposed to thank me, not insult me! Of course you were worth it, asshole!" He hissed, his whole body tense.

Byakuya was frozen, staring at Ichigo's far too close face. He tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly painfully dry.

Ichigo stared at him for a long, tight moment. "You really _are_ an idiot." He said, his voice low and hoarse, and he tugged Byakuya even closer, pulling him into a hard kiss. Byakuya stayed frozen, his ears ringing, but as Ichigo's tongue slid past his lips, he found that he was leaning into the kiss, his hands reaching up and curling around Ichigo's shoulder, dragging him closer. Eventually, they broke away, both gasping for air and gazing at each other in surprise.

_I just… I thought you should know. That he cares about you._

Ukitake had known, Byakuya realized. He was talking about _this_.

A slow smile spread across Ichigo's face. "Hey! I finally found a way to shut you up!"

Byakuya rolled his eyes, but there was a small smile on his face, too.


End file.
